Spoken language corpora
The Tape Archive of the Finnish Language contains more than 24,000 hours of audio recordings, mainly of Finnish dialects. There are also recordings made of Finnish spoken in Sweden, Norway, Ingria, the USA and Australia. In addition to Finnish dialects, there are other recordings of great value for our cultural heritage, such as lectures, academic talks and interviews.
The Archive also has recordings of Finnic and other Finno-Ugric languages, as well as a collection of wax cylinder recordings of Finnic languages, which have been converted into digital format and partly transcribed.
The Tape Archive was founded in 1959 by Pertti Virtaranta, Professor of Finnish language in the University of Helsinki. At the time the old colloquial dialects were considered soon to be lost, so the linguists felt the need to record them.
Currently, two thirds of the recordings have already been digitised. The Tape Archive’s resources are available free of charge for scholars, students and others interested in the material. It is possible to order copies of the recordings.
- The Tape Archive
- Contact details of the Archives (in Finnish)
- Information on the recordings of Finnish dialects (in Finnish)
